View From Heaven
by i.am.a.griffin
Summary: Vaguely connected and out of order one-shots depicting Lily and James  and along the way other deceased characters  watching earth-dwellers from cloudy seats above. Dates from Nov. 1 1981 to May 2, 1998.
1. Harry and Ginny

**I do not own Harry Potter.**

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><p>View From Heaven<p>

One: Harry and Ginny

"You know James, that kid of yours is brilliant," Sirius praised, shaking his head. "He's just like you. It'd be charming if it weren't so nauseating." James looked over to his old friend and rose his eyebrows. Together they looked down at their son and godson who'd just snogged the mickey out of Ginny Weasley in front of all of Gryffindor House right after they'd won the House Cup. A few people wolf-whistled and others continued to cheer loudly. Girls up and down the room looked absolutely anguished to see that the Chosen One had chosen a girl and there were a few boys who stared blankly in their direction, Ron Weasley included. "She's a redhead, just like Lily and he's got your theatrics down to a T," Sirius said, recalling a time when James fawned over Lily Evans in the middle of class in their fifth year. He'd even knelt on one knee.

Ginny positively glowed and their friend Hermione beamed. Harry and his best mate shared a glance where Harry asked for permission and Ron shrugged his allowance. "He might. But the fact that he's picked his best mate's sister is more like something you would do," James replied. "If only Remus or I had sisters."

Sirius lounged in his chair, thinking wistfully. "Let me think…your mum looked great in her time, I saw the photo albums your parents kept in the house…yea she'd be more than decent looking, your sister. I would've gone for it," he admitted with a dog-like smile. James rolled his eyes. "Would've been damn proud."

"Talking about Sirius' over-inflated male ego are we?" Lily asked, taking the seat next to James. Instantly, their fingers entwined. Sirius pulled a face at them. "May I take a stab at it? It's so easy."

Sirius scowled. "I was just saying how I would love to snog James' sister so intensely that she would come screaming back, begging for more."

"Hey! That's my sister you're talking about!" James called, rolling up a sleeve.

"James, you haven't got a sister," Lily said simply and they all sniggered.

They watched Harry for a while. He led Ginny from the Common Room not too long later so that they could be alone. They were covered by the Invisibility Cloak but that didn't hinder _their_ visibility. The couple walked about the corridors of Hogwarts uninterrupted, although Ginny held out the Marauder's Map just in case. They spoke endlessly of everything starting with the match, and then her studying for OWLs, and Snape giving him detentions.

"Bloody Snivellus Snape," James muttered. "Why's he taking out his anger at me on Harry?"

"Well mate you're dead," Sirius said matter-of-factly. "Unless he wants to graffiti your tombstone there isn't much he can do to you. And he wouldn't touch your tombstone because you share one with Lily and we both know he would never do anything to defile the beloved name of Lily Evans."

James shrugged. "You loathe Snape."

"And he loathes me likewise. We have an understanding," Sirius told him.

"James," Lily said calmly, "you can't hate Severus that much. Not for all he's doing for Harry. For me. He's putting himself in great danger to protect our son. And he wasn't asked to. He's not being forced to do it."

Yet again, James shrugged.

Harry and Ginny had stopped in the kitchens even though there was plenty of food in the Common Room. After eating, they walked around a bit more but they finally sat in a long and very deserted corridor and continued talking about what they thought of Ron and Hermione since it was so clear that they belonged together. Sirius was becoming bored. "All they're doing is talking. Maybe he's not like you as much after all."

Lily glared. "Stop trying to fowl up my son! They're only sixteen! Talking is all they should be doing," she said as a mother should.

"Is that really all you did back in your Hogwarts days Lily-flower? Talked?" Sirius asked with a suggestive raise of the brows.

"No," James answered for her with a wink. She coloured a deep red and turned away but James squeezed her hand and she gazed lovingly back at him.

"Doesn't matter anyways," Sirius said with a whistle. He stood and clapped. "Go for it Harry…" Glancing back down James and Lily watched as Harry's and Ginny's conversation came to stop and they just stared at one another, love-drunk. Harry pulled Ginny towards him and engulfed her face in his.

"Go Harry! Wooooo!" Sirius threw his arms in the air in victory. "Well done, Harry. It's a little messy, but he's relatively new at this," he reasoned, trying to egg his godson on through non-existent brain waves from the dead.

James crossed his arms and nodded proudly. "That's my boy."

Lily smiled at first, happy for her son. Then she wondered what she would've thought if she knew her parents had been watching when she and James gallivanted about the castle at night beneath the Invisibility Cloak. She stood, rapping the two of them over their heads with her hand. "Would you two stop being such prats and give him some privacy! You are both disgusting. Let's go watch Remus for a bit."

"I'd bet he's doing something worse with that Tonks girl of his," Sirius chided and James laughed.

"Perverts," she spat, dragging them by their ears through the white fluff as they continued to make increasingly nasty remarks about how kinky a Metamorphmagi could be. "I swear the both of you are so infantile! It was much easier watching over Harry when we didn't have another _teenager _following us around up here."

Sirius laughed through the pain as Lilly clenched his ear tighter. "Oh come off it Lily, you know you've missed me! I bet you watched over me all the time before I kicked the bucket."

"Hardly. You weren't all that interesting to watch," Lily snapped.

"An Azkaban cell isn't interesting?"

"Only when you're breaking out of it mate."

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><p><strong>I hope you enjoyed it! Please review and let me know what you think!<strong>

**Also, I have a story called Make it in Time and you should totally read and review it! Thanks for your support!**


	2. The Breaking Free

Thanks to Angie Kanagroo, Mal, , DanceThroughMyStory for reviewing!

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><p>Chapter Two: The Breaking Free<p>

James paced backwards and forwards, anxiousness spreading like fiendfyre right inside his gut. He wished he could slip right through whatever it was that kept him far above and away. He always felt this way watching his oldest mate. But tonight especially because it was _the_ night. At least James hoped it was. Lily put a hand on her husband's shoulder in a fruitless attempt to console him but he knew she was no more calm than he was.

The very thin, very unkempt and scraggly man sat beside his prison cell's barred door. He was panting hard. Along with the heat of the summer, even at night, the salty air from ocean surrounding him did nothing to aid his dehydration. Tonight had better be the night.

For weeks, Sirius had been agitated. He'd found Peter Pettigrew from a newspaper the Minister of Magic had had. Just after their murder James and Lily watched over their friends and were wounded to learn of Pettigrew's betrayal. James had flipped a few tables, figuratively speaking. Sirius however had only shown a strengthened desire to escape his cell in Azkaban Prison. Perhaps his anger was abated by the dementors. Even so, James had taken to watching Sirius as he slept, hoping for some liberation or sanctuary, and had often heard him whispering in his sleep. Peter Pettigrew was at Hogwarts, where Harry would be in short time. James wanted Wormtail as far away from Harry as possible and he wanted Sirius to break free from Azkaban more than anything.

Besides, James thought, even managing to procure half a smirk, if there was anyone most capable of successfully breaking out of Azkaban it was his mischief mastermind best friend, Sirius Black.

Sirius transformed into his Animagus form. Lily recoiled, grabbing James's wrist.

"Wait for it Padfoot, wait for it…"

Approaching the door of Sirius' cell was a dementor delivering food if it could be recognized as such. Sirius edged forward.

"Wait," James said again and he wondered if Sirius could hear him because the black dog backed an inch. "Good, good."

The dementor opened the door barely a foot wide and stuck his head in, searching for happiness but as usual a blank faded feeling of sadness was all that could be detected. It dropped the tray of mush right in front of the opening of the door and began to leave.

"Now!"

And right then Padfoot gingerly stepped over the tray of food, careful not to make a sound, and his thin frame just made it as the door closed an inch behind his scraggly tail. The dementor moved forward, perceiving nothing different. Sirius moved in the opposite direction, maneuvering himself so not to be seen by other prisoners.

James couldn't tell if Lily's shaking body was shaking him too or if he was actually k=jittery with anxiousness. He held his breath when Sirius stopped mid step and another dementor crossed his path. But it too did not sense his insignificance and so moved on without

"If you die tonight Padfoot, you'd better have your soul with you," James muttered under his breath.

At last, Sirius came to the edge of the prison. A cliff jutting out over the water maybe fifty feet, maybe a hundred. He didn't hesitate and Lily flinched and covered her eyes in James shoulder when Sirius jumped. James felt like it took hours for him to fall. It felt longer though to wait for him to surface. There were sharp rocks at the bottom. The waters were violent enough to be in a storm. And just as James was about to look around the heavens for his mate, the black dog emerged, retching but alive.

"Swim… swim! Swim Sirius!" Lily looked out and gasped. She began yelling too. Together they were jumping, cheering him on, screaming for him to swim.

And swim he did. After a few miles, when he was a relatively safe distance away from the dementors, he returned back to his human form and he swam more efficiently. He soon grew lethargic. They watched as the merciless waves of the ocean pushed him back twice as far as he swam. Helplessly, they could see the muscles in his arms and legs grow weary and weak with the strain. James and Lily could see the end coming.

Lily shook her head. "You must keep going. Sirius please…it's right there, just a bit farther. Don't give up," she said in a whisper, almost to herself.

But the poor man became idle. His breathing slowed. Sirius floated on his back for a while, allowing the waves to push him, struggling to emerge each time a wild one sent him underneath the surface.

"Not after all of this. Stay strong. You will live." James demanded this of his friend as if he were sitting right in front of them.

He hadn't given up. Finally, used the rest of his strength to have himself wash up on the shore. It was late in the evening. No one was around. He took a few agonizing breaths and changed back into a dog. He half-walked, half-dragged himself to a bushy corner, rolled up and fell unconscious.

"He's free. He's alive!" Lily jumped and threw her arms around James, who embraced her tightly, keeping her eyes locked on his mate over his wife's shoulders.

_You're alive mate. Now find him. Find him and protect him._


End file.
